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Praga Cup UK. Twelve months ahead of schedule, Praga Cars have announced that its first one-make championship will take place in the UK in 2020 in partnership with Britcar Endurance. This follows the success of running nine Praga R1 cars in the Praga Category of the Britcar Endurance Championship this season. Praga cars have committed to having at least sixteen cars on the grid for the planned first round of the Praga Cup at Silverstone in March 2022. Six UK rounds are planned starting at Silverstone. The second round will be at Oulton Park in April, the companies ‘home’ circuit as it is nearest the companies UK HQ. The Praga Cup will race on both days over a Britcar weekend. With limited production at the Praga manufacturing facility in the Czech Republic as the company builds relations with its new global network of Praga R1 dealers, Praga Cars and VR Motorsport will cap the Praga Cup to a maximum of 24 R1s. Also making up the grid will be the Praga 2021 factory cars, which are now for sale through VR Motorsport.

Significant prizes are planned, including a 2022 factory R1 prize for the winning team. Discussions are also underway with Praga Racing West, Praga’s Californian dealer, for a unique opportunity for two drivers to race in the November 2022 25 Hours of Thunderhill race. The team came 3rd with their own R1 in the most recent running of the race in 2019.

There are also plans for a non-championship weekend in Europe, where teams will benefit from guaranteed high-profile

YouTube and TV coverage as Praga builds on its 2021 Guest Driver programme that features drivers who command over two million fans and followers across their social channels.

Classic and Competition Car Classic and Competition Car Classic and Competition Car Classic and Competition Car

Radford Type 62-2 The Lotus Type 62-2 sports car coach-built by Radford made its public debut in the iconic Gold Leaf colour scheme at the exclusive Quail Lodge Show. Only 62 cars will be built Worldwide and only 12 will be in the iconic Gold Leaf livery. The Gold Leaf Type 62-2 ‘Quail Edition’ is the most extreme version of the Gold Leaf liveried cars. The car

has several key enhancements over the Classic and Gold Leaf cars. It features a bespoke carbon fibre composite front splitter and rear diffuser. It has AP Monobloc callipers and full carbon ceramic brakes These are housed within

larger 18 inch front

and 19 inch

Dymag carbon

composite wheels,

which lower

the mass, and improve the handling characteristics of the car. The car is also fitted with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres. The car is powered by a 3.5 litre supercharged V6 engine, developing 500 bhp. The Gold Leaf cars will have a 7Speed Dual-clutch transmission system with a mechanical limited slip differential. Over half of the 62 cars have already been allocated to buyers.

Double ducktail rear on the Gold Leaf cars

Venom F5 Hypercar is Sold Out.

Hennessey have announced that the 24 $2.1 million bespoke Venom F5 Hypercars have now been allocated. The Texas based company showed a pair of Venom F5 customer cars at Monterey Car week where orders were confirmed for the remaining vehicles from the 24 car production run. The Venom F5 is powered by a twin-turbocharged 6.6 litre V8 engine which develops 1,817 hp and 1,193 lb/ft of torque, which Hennessey Special Vehicles claim, make it the most powerful hypercar ever made. With the show season coming to an end in America, the engineering team can return to final validation testing on roads and racing circuits.. The final phase of testing will refine the car’s full power acceleration, high speed stability and braking. Once testing is signed off, Hennessey wants to try and achieve a top speed surpassing 311 mph (500kph)

Mazda Motorsport repeat historic first win.

The Mazda RT24-P took its first ever victory in the 2019 Sahlen’s Six Hours race at Watkins Glen in 2019. It has

now achieved its first victory of 2021 at the same event.

The #55 Mazda driven by Harry Tincknell, Oliver Jarvis and Jonathan

Bomarito started from the

back of the Dpi pack after an overnight precautionary engine change. Thanks to some inspired driving by the drivers and some slick strategy by the team saw them win the six hour race by under a second from the #60 MSR Acura car driven by Olivier Pla in 2nd place. This was the first win of the season for Mazda Motorsport and their second consecutive victory for Mazda at Watkins Glen. The victory also comes on the 30th anniversary of Mazda’s win at the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans win.

Jimmy Greaves - A motorsport tribute By Syd Wall.

After a glittering career at Chelsea, AC Milan and Spurs, his goal scoring record was astonishing: 173 goals for Chelsea youth in 2 seasons (he scored 7 in one match and the manager told him to keep his feet on the ground as “you won’t do that every week” so he scored 9 in the next match), 124 goals in 157 matches for Chelsea's 1st team, 9 goals in 12 for AC Milan and 220 in 321 matches for Spurs. But in the 1969-70 season, he was dropped and then transferred to West Ham. He scored twice on his

debut in March and was at Wembley in April. But it wasn’t for the Cup Final; he was in the driving seat of a works Ford Escort TC, sitting alongside Tony Fall, on the start line of a 16,000 mile rally. How on earth did this happen? The rally was conceived by Wylton Dickinson as an echo of the 1967 London to Sydney rally. He had friends in the Football Association and the idea was to drive from

London to the capital city of Mexico, the home of the 1970 football World Cup, passing through every country participating in the World Cup Finals. It was an excellent opportunity to showcase the motor industry and sponsorship with the Daily Mirror was arranged. The route was devised by John Sprinzel and would take the teams from London to France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Italy, back into France, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina,Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and finally into Mexico. The stages were immense, some over 500 miles long. Massive entries from Ford and British Leyland and smaller teams from Citroen and Moskvitch brought top drivers to the entry list (Tony Fall, Roger Clark, Rauno Aaltonen, Andrew Cowan, Brian Culcheth, Paddy Hopkirk, Timo Makinen, Guy Verrier, Gilbert Stapelaere, Hannu Mikkola) and created great interest with rally fans. But with an eye to creating interest with the general public, some celebrity drivers were sought out. Ford were also looking for a high profile name for their team and Jimmy Greaves fitted the bill. He lived near Dagenham where Ford had their main UK plant, had friends who worked there and was one of the biggest names in football, known throughout the world. Greaves was teamed with Tony Fall who was responsible for Jimmy’s transition as a rally driver and co-driver from novice to competency. After some initial training, they went on a road trip to Yugoslavia to see if they could co-exist for an extended period and wherever they went, Jimmy was recognised and mobbed. All this was during the football season where he was only playing intermittently for Spurs. It was inevitable it was the end of his time at the club - the

manager wanted him out but he was still a massive asset to a new club and West Ham were keen enough to have him even though he would miss the last two months of the season. So a couple of weeks after his debut duo of goals for West Ham, Greaves and Fall started the rally, ironically waved away by Alf Ramsey, the England manager who had not included him on the squad for the football World Cup. However, Ford were very happy to have him other team instead. Although Tony Fall would do most of the driving, Ford were impressed enough with Greaves in training that the car was entered in his name. Greaves might have been football match fit but it took many days of lack of sleep while still driving at 100mph on gravel roads to get used to the conditions. It was here in Yugoslavia that they were fastest on one of the two 120 mile stages despite encountering a herd of cows. Once the Portuguese stages were completed, there was a three week break with nine days on the ferry to Brazil during which there was a lot of partying amongst the crews. 93 starters were reduced to 71 by the Rio de Janeiro restart, but there were still 10,000 miles of rallying to go. Floods and rough roads in Brazil and Uruguay reduced the field to 52 cars before reaching Argentina where the route took them into the Andes mountains

travelling on roads up to 15,000 feet with the associated

thin air which strangled the engines and gave many crews altitude sickness without them having access to medical support teams which would be standard on rallies now. They had a puncture then a broken wheel leaving them on three wheels at one stage followed by a broken axle on the next stage after swerving to avoid a pedestrian on a narrow mountain road, skidding to a halt on the very edge. The archives don’t go into detail about how they fixed these problems but no doubt Tony Fall’s abilities and experience were called on and they were able to continue. After seven weeks, the 32 remaining cars were in Peru and on the home stretch. But then, in Panama, they had a terrifying accident. While asleep on a fast road section, Greaves was woken by the sound of screeching brakes as Tony Fall, unsuccessfully tried to avoid a galloping horse which came out of nowhere right in front of him, with the impact at around 100mph. When the car came to a stop, the windscreen was smashed and they were covered in blood. The ‘roo bars on the front had saved them and the car, but sadly not the horse.

All they could do was clean the screen as well as they could and continue, lucky to have escaped with their lives. At the finish in Mexico City, 23 cars crossed the line, Greaves and Fall in 6th place, 10 hours behind the winners in another Escort, Hannu Mikkola and Gunnar

During the award ceremony, presenter Graham Hill said “Jimmy Greaves has earned the admiration of the motoring world. It is an outstanding achievement for him to finish so high in a field against some of the greatest rally drivers in the business. The rally puts unparalleled demands on the durability of both men and machines. It takes guts and a lot of driving ability to get through.” Greaves was also astounded that he had completed the event let alone coming in 6th, remarking that if he’d known how hard it was, he doubted he would have taken it on: “Those rally drivers are amongst the toughest and most fearless sportsmen I have ever met. There were times when I felt physically sick over the demands of the race, and several times I wanted to quit, but there was no way I was going to let Tony down.” I am sure that Peter Ashcroft said if Greaves hadn’t been a footballer, he would certainly have made it as a rally driver.

All these years later, I find it sad that the current sports journalists have overlooked this immense part of his story. I have not heard or read of it in any tribute. It ranks alongside his incredible scoring record, his personal achievement of beating alcoholism and his subsequent brilliant TV career. His biggest career disappointment was, as the leading goalscorer of the time, he was injured during the 1966 World Cup finals and was replaced by Geoff Hurst who famously went on to score a hat trick in the final. Greaves finally received a World Cup winner’s medal in 2009 after FIFA rules were changed and considering many of the deadbeats who appear in the honours lists, I think it was scandalous that he had to wait

until months before his death before he was finally on the list, receiving an MBE. A final fitting tribute to a man who truly was a sporting legend.